Disparities in surgical care outcomes between black and white patients have lessened in the last decade, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.
For the study, a research team analyzed Medicare inpatient claims data from 2005 to 2014. The researchers assessed for trends in 30-day surgical mortality among black and white patients for three low-risk procedures and five high-risk procedures. High-risk procedures included coronary artery bypass graft, hip replacement, abdominal aortic aneurysm, pulmonary lobectomy and colectomy. Low-risk procedures included knee replacement, cholecystectomy and appendectomy.
For all procedures, researchers found a 3.85 percent mortality rate among black surgical patients compared to 3.27 percent mortality rate for white patients. However, mortality trends improved by 0.1 percent for blacks and 0.07 percent for whites over the study period. The improvement rates are indicative of a narrowing in racial disparities among black and white surgical patients, according to the researchers.
"Over the past decade, surgical care has improved for black patients, often more quickly than for their white counterparts," concluded the study's authors. "This trend has reduced, but not eliminated, racial disparities in postoperative mortality. Although the exact mechanism of improvement remains unknown, it is reassuring that broad-based quality improvement efforts may be having a positive effect on health outcomes. Additional efforts are needed to ensure that all patients, irrespective of race, have comparable outcomes."
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